Jim-- I thought that Wikipedia's style guide required metric units (after
all it is an *international* encyclopedia), with inch-pound units in
parentheses after. I don't recall whether the parenthetical units are
optional or mandatory. I can see how that would create practical
problems. If litres, for example, were converted parenthetically to
gallons, which gallons would they be: U.S. or Imperial? You might want
to check about the current style guide. --Martin Morrison
============
On Wed, 22 May 2013, James Frysinger wrote:
One of the ways that we can promote proper SI usage is to correct errors in
that usage when used in public. Many emails have been posted to this list
telling of efforts, many successful, to do so.
One such set of public documents are those that appear on Wikipedia. This
system allows public editors who can then correct errors themselves. I have
just done so.
A Wikipedia page on Mk 16 torpedoes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_16_torpedo
gave rated the explosive energy content in its warhead in units of joules per
gigameter. The author intended, I'm sure, to express that as joules per gram,
but he or she used "J/Gm" as the unit symbol instead of "J/g".
Besides fixing that, I also did some editing on replacing inappropriate
hyphens and commas with spaces, non-breaking spaces ( ), or nothing at
all. A few other non-breaking spaces were inserted where needed.
Unfortunately, Wikipedia provides its authors with a conversion program. So,
for example, an author can provide the information "15 ft 6 in" with the
appropriate convert command and a parenthetical metric value will be added
following the original "15 ft 6 in". Another webpage I had hope to tweak used
this, preventing direct action by me. That conversion program automatically
inserts a comma in 4-digit numbers. I would prefer making that an option of
the author's, as the page cited above did.
A few years ago that conversion program would convert speeds to "kph" if the
authors told it to. I lobbied successfully, it seems. Now, apparently, when
the author's coding tells the program to provide speed conversions to "kph"
it automatically changes that to "km/h". Yes, it's a small victory, but one
that I savor.
I encourage those who are so inclined to register as Wikipedia editors. It's
easy to do. And it's gratifying to see your corrections take effect on the
Web almost immediately! The Wikipedia pages will tell you how to register.
Jim
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
(C) 931.212.0267
(H) 931.657.3107
(F) 931.657.3108
